Brief Description Of The Development Of The Invention
With certain types of heavy machinery, such as large compressors, it is necessary to anchor the machinery to a stationary base because the high amplitude cyclical vibration of the machinery will cause the machinery to "walk" or undesirably move away from its initial point of support as the machinery is operated. This displacement of the machine as a result of vibration can cause interconnecting piping, electrical wiring and the like to be stressed, and may even cause structural failure of such connections with the result that the system is damaged, and the machine ceases to operate. Moreover, in the case of severe vibration, the distance which a heavy machine may move can be great enough over an extended period of operation without close attendance that damage to surrounding machinery or valuable pieces of equipment can result from the impact of the "walking" machine.
Where a machine of the type described has been bolted or otherwise secured to a supporting surface or pad, the necessity can arise from time-to-time for detaching the machine from the supporting surface or pad in order to move it to a different location. The permanency of the anchoring system used can then be a deterrent to rapid and economical removal of the machinery to transport it to the new location. Moreover, the pads or supporting structures employed are frequently permanently fixed at the location where they are used to support the machine, with the result that a new pad must be constructed at the new operational situs of the machine. This is costly.
One of the concomitant characteristics of severely vibrating machinery is the propensity of such machinery to vibrate lubricant or circulated liquids out of the machine and on to the supporting pad or other structure upon which the machine rest during its operation. Thus, oil, grease and other lubricants which may be employed tend to be splashed or vibrated out of reservoirs, or through various seals in the machinery, so that a significant pool or accumulation of such hydrocarbon lubricant compositions tend to locate beneath the machine, and to each side thereof for some distance.
These environmentally harmful substances may then move by gravity or vibratory response outwardly from the machine into the surrounding soil. The soil adjacent the pad or other supporting structure may thus be poisoned or contaminated. These deleterious materials present the further hazard of migrating with percolating water downwardly into a subterranean water table, with resulting contamination of water supplies. Although heavy machinery has been operated for many years without great concern for this source of environmental contamination, the heightened sensitivity of environmentalists, hydrologists, and governmental agencies to the hazards posed by even relatively small amounts of hydrocarbon contamination, such as that originating at an industrial source, makes it desirable that some means be provided for preventing the lubricants or other fluids which may leak from the machinery from being dispersed into the surrounding soil, or, when the machine is enclosed within a building, to a location where the grease or other contaminate may be washed down during clean up and into drains which ultimately drain to storm sewers or other potential sources of subsoil contamination.